Homemade Soft Pretzels

Do you crave soft pretzels? Don’t wait for your next trip to the mall to get them – make your own soft pretzels! It’s not as hard as you think!

Homemade Soft Pretzels

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I love soft pretzels. They are one of my indulgence purchases when I’m at the mall or while I’m waiting for a flight at the airport. I have thought about making them at home for a long time, but they just seemed like it would take an awful lot of work. Would it be worth it? For a pretzel?

Yes. It’s worth it.

It takes a little bit of practice. And the first time you’ll probably make a mess. But by the second batch of pretzels, I really felt like I had a good system down! There are two important things you need to know before you get started.

Number 1 – You need to proof your yeast. (Check out this post to find out how.) Basically, just combine the yeast, sugar, and salt in some warm water to “wake up” the yeast and get it ready to work.

Number 2 – canola oil (or vegetable oil) is going to be your best friend. This dough will stick to everything, unless you use some oil. You won’t need much, but you will need some. So get it out of the pantry.

Be sure to read this whole post – there are a few tricks as we go, and I’ll walk you through everything step by step.

Get your yeast proofing, and then get out your electric mixer with the dough hook. Measure in the flour and butter. When the yeast is ready (after about 5 minutes), pour the yeast mixture in. Turn the mixer on low to start (or flour will fly all over your kitchen). Once you think the flour won’t poof all over everywhere, turn the speed up to medium and let it go for a couple of minutes. You may want to stop once to scrape the sides of the bowl down to get as much of the flour incorporated as possible. You are looking for a smooth dough, that mostly forms one big ball. There will still probably be some “crumbs” of dough in the bottom of the bowl that don’t stick. That’s ok, we’ll take care of that in the next step. If you overmix the dough, it will become a sticky mess and very hard to deal with. So if you aren’t sure, undermix it a little bit.

Turn the dough (with any flour left in the bottom of the bowl) out onto a lightly oiled pastry mat. (Pour some canola oil on a paper towel and rub the mat with it. That should be all you need. Get your hands just a little oily, too.) Knead the dough until all the little crumbs are incorporated. The dough should be smooth and elastic when you’re done. The put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. (Do you see a theme here?) Cover the bowl loosely and set it somewhere warm to rise. (Find out my trick here.) Come back in an hour.

After the dough has risen for an hour, the excitement starts. Measure out roughly 16 cups of water. No need to be exact. Put that in a big pot, and add 1 cup of baking soda. Bring this to a boil. While the water is heating up, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. (Yes, 450. I know. It’s hot. Trust me. It’s going to be wonderful.) Now get 2 baking sheets ready – line them with parchment paper and (you guessed it) lightly oil the parchment paper.

Turn the dough out on your oiled pastry mat. Punch the dough down. Using a pizza cutter, divide the dough into 8 sections. Roll each section into a rope about 16-20 inches long. Fold the ends over to make a pretzel shape. Set the pretzels aside on the baking sheets.

Once the water is boiling, boil each pretzel – one at a time – for 30 seconds. You don’t need to be exact. 30 seconds, 40 seconds, something around there. If you try to do two pretzels at a time they will stick to each other. Use a flat spatula to lift the pretzels out of the water, and put them back on the baking sheet. Brush the top of each pretzel with melted butter, and bake them at 450 degrees for 12-14 minutes. I had to rotate my baking sheets half way through, the top half of my oven cooks faster than the bottom half.

When the pretzels are golden brown and delicious, take them out of the oven and cool the pretzels on wire racks. (You’re done with the extra oil now. The cooked pretzels shouldn’t stick to anything.) Brush the tops of the pretzels with melted butter and sprinkle with pretzel salt.

Wait to salt the pretzels until close to when you’re going to eat them. If you salt too early (say, the day before), the salt will dissolve and make the top of the pretzel a little damp. It will still taste fine, it just won’t look as pretty.

I know… it sounds like a lot. But once you get going, it really isn’t all that bad! And most of the things you used can go right in the dishwasher, so clean up isn’t even that bad! And these pretzels…. oh my… so good! They are worth the effort! Enjoy!

Instructions

Dissolve sugar, salt, and yeast in 1-1/4 cups of warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes. You should see a thick foam forming by the end of five minutes.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, combine the flour and 1/2 cup melted butter. Add the yeast mixture.

Turn the mixer on low speed and mix the flour, butter, and yeast mixture. Once the flour has started to incorporate, increase the mixer speed to medium. Scrape the sides down as necessary.

Mix the dough until it forms a smooth ball of dough, 3-4 minutes. There will still be some "crumbs" of dough in the bottom of the bowl. Do not overmix - the dough will become sticky and difficult to work with.

Turn the dough (and any flour that has not yet incorporated) out onto a lightly oiled pastry mat. Knead the dough until all the flour has been incorporated, and the dough is smooth and elastic.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Loosely cover, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, combine the baking soda and 16 cups water in a large pot and bring to a boil. Prepare two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Lightly oil the parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

While the water is coming to a boil, shape the dough. Turn the dough out on a lightly oiled pastry mat and punch down. Using a pizza cutter, separate the dough into 8 equal portions.

Roll each portion out into a rope 16-20 inches long. Cross the ends over the center to make a pretzel shape. Place each pretzel on the oiled parchment paper.

Once the water is boiling, boil each pretzel for 30 seconds. Work with one pretzel at a time (or they will stick together). Use a flat spatula to take the pretzels out of the water. Place the boiled pretzels back on the parchment paper.

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